Panda and Football, photo by Danny Clinch

I
Six Air Force Thunderbirds have just roared overhead at what felt like inches above our backstage area, giving myself and the entire E Street Band a brush cut. With 20 minutes to go, I'm sitting in my trailer trying to decide what boots to wear. I've got a nice pair of cowboy boots my feet look really good in, but I'm concerned about their stability. Two days ago we rehearsed in full rain on the field and the stage became as slick as an ice pond. It was almost impossible to stand on. It was so slick I crashed into Mike Colucci, our cameraman, coming off my knee slide, his camera the only thing that kept me from launching out onto the soggy turf. When Jerry the umpire in "Glory Days" did his bit, he came running out, couldn't stop himself and executed one of the most painfully perfect "man slips on a banana peel" falls I've ever seen. This sent Steve, myself and the entire band into one of the biggest stress-induced laughters of our lives that lasted all the way back to our trailers. (A few Advil and Jerry was okay.)

I better go with the combat boots I always carry. The round toes will give me better braking power than the pointy-toed cowboy boots when I hit the deck. I stuff my boots with two innersoles to make them as fitted as possible, zip them up snuggly around my ankles, stomp around in my trailer a bit and feel pretty grounded. Fifteen minutes…oh, by the way, I'm somewhat nervous. It's not the usual pre-show jitters, not "butterflies," it's not wardrobe malfunction anticipation anxiety, I'm talking about five minutes to beach landing, "Right Stuff" "Lord Don't Let Me Screw the Pooch in Front of 100 Million People" one of the biggest television audiences since dinosaurs first screwed on earth kind of semi-terror. It only lasts for a minute…I check my hair, spray it with something that turns it into concrete and I'm out the door.

I catch sight of Patti smiling. She's been my rock all week. I put my arm around her and away we go. They take us by golf cart to a holding tunnel right off the field. The problem is there are a thousand people there, tv cameras, media of all kinds and general chaos. Suddenly, hundreds of people rush by us in a column shouting, cheering…our fans! And tonight also our stage builders. These are "the volunteers". They've been here for two weeks on their own dime in a field day after day, putting together and pulling apart pieces of our stage over and over again, theoretically achieving military precision. Now it's for real. I hope they've got it down because as we're escorted onto the field, lights in the stadium fully up, the banshee wail of 70,000 screaming football fanatics rising in our ears, there's nothing there. Nothing…no sound, no lights, no instruments, no stage, nothing but brightly lit unwelcoming green turf. Suddenly an army of ants come from all sides of what seems like nowhere. Each rolling a piece of our lifeline, our earth onto the field. The cavalry has arrived. What takes us on a concert day 8 hours to do is done in five minutes. Unbelieveable. Everything in our world is there…we hope. We gather a few feet off the stage, form a circle of hands, I say a few words drowned out by the crowd and it's smiles all around. I've been in a lot of high stakes situations like this, though not exactly like this, with these people before. It's stressful, but our band is made for it…and it's about to begin…so happy warriors we bound up onto the stage.

II
The NFL stage manager gives me the three minute sign…two minutes…one…there's a guy jumping up and down on sections of the stage to get them to sit evenly on the grass field…30 seconds…they're still testing all the speakers and equipment…that's cutting it close! The lights in the stadium go down. The crowd erupts and Max's drumbeat opens "10th Avenue." I feel a white light silhouette Clarence and I for a moment. I hear Roy's piano. I give "C"'s hand a pat. I'm on the move tossing my guitar in a high arc for Kevin, my guitar tech, to catch and it's…"ladies and gentlemen, for the next 12 minutes we will be bringing the righteous and mighty power of the E Street Band into your beautiful home. So…step back from the guacamole dip. Put the chicken fingers down! And turn the TV ALL the way up!" Because, of course, there is just ONE thing I've got to know: "IS THERE ANYBODY ALIVE OUT THERE?!"

All I know is if you were standing next to me, you would be. I feel like I've just taken a syringe of adrenalin straight to the heart. Before we came out, I had two major concerns. One, something might go wrong beyond my control. That completely disappeared before we hit the stage. Tonight our fate is in the hands of many, so no sense for useless worry. Two, I was worried that I would find myself 'out' of myself and not in the moment. My old friend Peter Wolf once said 'the strangest thing you can do on stage is think about what you're doing." This is true. To observe oneself from afar while struggling to bring the moment to life is an unpleasant experience. I've had it more than once. It's an existential problem. Unfortunately, right in my wheel house. It doesn't mean it's going to be a bad show. It may be a great one. It just means it might take time, something we don't have much of tonight. When that happens, I do anything to break it. Tear up the set list, call an audible, make a mistake, anything to get "IN." That's what you get paid for, TO BE HERE NOW! The power, potential and volume of your present-ness is a basic rock and roll promise. It's the essential element that holds the attention of your audience, that gives force, shape and authority to the evening's events. And however you get there on any given night, that's the road you take. "IS THERE ANYBODY ALIVE IN HERE?!"…there better be.

I'm on top of the piano (good old boots). I'm down. One…two…three, knee drop in front of the microphone and I'm bending back almost flat on the stage. I close my eyes for a moment and when I open them, I see nothing but blue night sky. No band, no crowd, no stadium. I hear and feel all of it in the form of a great siren like din surrounding me but with my back nearly flat against the stage I see nothing but beautiful night sky with a halo of a thousand stadium suns at its edges. I take several deep breaths and a calm comes over me. I feel myself deeply and happily "IN."

Since the inception of our band it was our ambition to play for everyone. We've achieved a lot but we haven't achieved that. Our audience remains tribal…that is predominantly white. On occasion, the Inaugural Concert, during a political campaign, touring through Africa in '88, particularly in Cleveland with President Obama, I looked out and sang "Promised Land" to the audience I intended it for, young people, old people, black, white, brown, cutting across religious and class lines. That's who I'm singing to today. Today we play for everyone. I pull myself upright with the mike stand back into the world, this world, my world, the one with everybody in it and the stadium, the crowd, my band, my best friends, my wife come rushing into view and it's "teardrops on the city…"

III
During "Tenth Avenue" I tell the story of my band…and other things "when the change was made uptown"…. It goes rushing by, then the knee slide. Too much adrenalin, a late drop, too much speed, here I come Mike…BOOM! And I'm onto his camera, the lens implanted into my chest with one leg off the stage. I use his camera to push myself back up and…say it, say it, say it, say it…BLAM! BORN TO RUN…my story…Something bright and hot blows up behind me. I heard there were fireworks. I never saw any. Just the ones going off in my head. I'm out of breath. I try to slow it down. That ain't gonna happen. I already hear the crowd singing the last eight bars of "Born to Run" oh, oh, oh, oh…then it's straight into "Working on a Dream"…your story…and mine I hope. Steve is on my right, Patti on my left. I catch a smile and the wonderful choir, The Joyce Garrett Singers, that backed me in Washington during the Inaugural concert is behind us. I turn to see their faces and listen to the sound of their voices…"working on a dream". Done. Moments later, we're ripping straight into "Glory Days"…the end of the story. A last party steeped in merry fatalism and some laughs with my old pal, Steve. Jerry the Ump doesn't fall on his ass tonight. He just throws the yellow penalty flag for the precious 40 seconds we've gone overtime…home stretch. Everyone is out front now forming that great line. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch the horns raising their instruments high, my guitar is wheeling around my neck and on the seventh beat, I'm going to Disneyland. I'm already someplace a lot farther and more fun than that. I look around, we're alive, it's over, we link arms and take a bow as the stage comes apart beneath our feet. It's chaos again all the way back to the trailer. A toast…our families, friends, Jon, George, Brendan, Barbara, with Don Mischer, Ricky Kirshner, Glenn Weiss, Charles Coplin, and Dick Ebersol, the great team that put it altogether and the end of a good football game.

IV
The theory of relativity holds. On stage your exhilaration is in direct proportion to the void you're dancing over. A gig I always looked a little askance at and was a little wary of turned out to have surprising emotional power and resonance for me and my band. It was a high point, a marker of some sort and went up with the biggest shows of our work life. The NFL threw us an anniversary party the likes of which we'd never throw for ourselves (we're too fussy) with fireworks and everything! In the middle of their football game, they let us hammer out a little part of our story. I love playing long and hard but it was the 35 years in 12 minutes…that was the trick. You start here, you end there, that's it. That's the time you've got to give it everything you have…12 minutes…give or take a few seconds. The Super Bowl is going to help me sell a few new records, that's what I wanted because I want people to hear where we are today. It'll probably put a few extra fannies in the seats and that's fine. We live high around here and I like to do good business for my record company and concert promoters. But what it's really about is my band remains one of the mightiest in the land and I want you to know it, we want to show you…because we can.

By 3 am, I am back home, everyone in the house fast asleep and tucked in bed. I am sitting in the yard over an open fire, staring up again into that black night sky, my ears still ringing…"Oh yeah, it's alright."

February, 2009

Read Bruce's Super Bowl Journal with an album of Danny Clinch's behind-the-scenes photographs of the event.

"…Someday we'll look back on this…"

Photos by Danny Clinch

All work © 2009 Danny Clinch Photography and may not be replicated without expressed written consent.

ANNOUNCING BRUCE AT BONNAROO
Bruce and the E Street Band have announced they will be playing Bonnaroo this summer. Bruce and the band will be returning to the States in the midst of the European leg, after the Bergen, Norway shows on June 9 and 10. Bonnaroo runs from June 11 to June 14 in Manchester, TN. Visit the Bonnaroo site for ticket info.

E STREET RADIO: ALL BRUCE, ALL THE TIME
Tune in to E Street Radio, the exclusive commercial-free channel dedicated to the music of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Visit SIRIUS channel 10 and XM channel 58 .

For more information, go to sirius.com/estreetradio and xmradio.com/estreetradio.

BRUCE ROCKS THE SUPER BOWL



Was there any doubt that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band would get the job DONE in Tampa? The band's historic halftime performance opened with "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" and drove straight into "Born To Run." "Working On A Dream" followed, showing great promise as a showstopper on the 2009 tour to come. The set closed with a football-centric "Glory Days." And...what a great game! Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers on their 27-23 victory and sixth title, and the Arizona Cardinals for a superb season. Back to reality...

You can wear your Super Bowl memory of Bruce with one of our limited-edition collectible shirts, now available for a limited time at the Bruce Springsteen Store.

Read the Associated Press story.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT INSPIRED BY DANNY FEDERICI

Danny Federici, for 40 years the E Street Band's organist and keyboard player, died on April 17, 2008 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City after a three year battle with melanoma.

Please view Bruce's new public service announcement on Danny's page.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E STREET BAND TO LAUNCH 2009 US AND EUROPEAN TOUR

5-STAR (ROLLING STONE) NEW ALBUM 'WORKING ON A DREAM' (COLUMBIA RECORDS) OUT NOW

RESPONSE TO FIRST TICKET SALES IN SCANDINAVIA CAUSES SYSTEM CRASH WITH UNPRECEDENTED SALES IN STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN AND BERGEN, NORWAY

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have announced a forthcoming world tour.

"WORKING ON A DREAM": NOW AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE!
Bruce Springsteen's new album "Working on a Dream" has been released on Columbia Records. "Working on a Dream" was recorded with the E Street Band and features twelve new Springsteen compositions plus one bonus track. It is the fourth collaboration between Springsteen and Brendan O'Brien, who produced and mixed the album.

Order "Working On A Dream": from Amazon.com | iTunes Store

"Working on a Dream" Song Titles:

Outlaw Pete { lyrics } {Listen: WMP | QT }
My Lucky Day { lyrics } {Listen: WMP | QT }
Working On A Dream { lyrics } {Listen: WMP | QT }
Queen Of The Supermarket { lyrics } {Listen: WMP | QT }
What Love Can Do { lyrics } {Listen: WMP | QT }
This Life { lyrics } {Listen: WMP | QT }
Good Eye { lyrics } {Listen: WMP | QT }
Tomorrow Never Knows { lyrics } {Listen: WMP | QT }
Life Itself { lyrics } {Listen: WMP | QT }
Kingdom Of Days { lyrics } {Listen: WMP | QT }
Surprise, Surprise { lyrics } {Listen: WMP | QT }
The Last Carnival { lyrics } {Listen: WMP | QT }
Bonus track:
The Wrestler { lyrics } {Listen: WMP | QT }

Bruce Springsteen said, "Towards the end of recording 'Magic,' excited by the return to pop production sounds, I continued writing. When my friend producer Brendan O'Brien heard the new songs, he said, 'Let's keep going.' Over the course of the next year, that's just what we did, recording with the E Street Band during the breaks on last year's tour. I hope 'Working on a Dream' has caught the energy of the band fresh off the road from some of the most exciting shows we've ever done. All the songs were written quickly, we usually used one of our first few takes, and we all had a blast making this one from beginning to end."

"Working on a Dream" is Bruce Springsteen's twenty-fourth album and was recorded and mixed at Southern Tracks in Atlanta, GA with additional recording in New York City, Los Angeles, and New Jersey.

The Deluxe Package of 'Working on a Dream' features a DVD showing fans the first-ever look behind the scenes at the making of a Springsteen album; nothing in the film is staged. Produced, directed, and edited by longtime Springsteen associate and Emmy and GRAMMY winner Thom Zimny, the documentary film includes in-studio footage edited to the tracks of "My Lucky Day," "Queen of the Supermarket," "Kingdom of Days," "Working on a Dream," "Life Itself," and "The Last Carnival." Fans may also revel in never-before-heard demos and early versions of various songs as they see Springsteen and the E Street Band at work from a fly-on-the-wall point of view.

"THE WRESTLER" WINS A GOLDEN GLOBE

Congratulations to Bruce Springsteen, whose title song for "The Wrestler," has won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song -- Motion Picture category. Congratulations also to Mickey Rourke, the Golden Globe winner for Best Actor -- Drama.

Here's a short clip of Mickey Rourke discussing how Bruce Springsteen came to write "The Wrestler.":

DEAR FRIENDS AND FANS,

Some notes on the beginnings of Working on a Dream. During the last weeks of mixing Magic, we recorded a song called "What Love Can Do." It was sort of a "love in the time of Bush" meditation. It was a great track but felt more like a first song of new record rather than something that would fit on Magic. So our producer Brendan O'Brien said, "Hey, let's make another one right now!" I thought, no, I haven't done that since my first two records came out in the same year. And usually I don't write that quickly. But that night I went back to my hotel in Atlanta and over the next week, I wrote several songs ("This Life," "My Lucky Day," "Life Itself," along with "Good Eye" and "Tomorrow Never Knows") that formed the beginnings of our new album. Excited by the sounds we made on Magic I found there was more than enough fuel for the fire to keep going. Brendan and I demo'd these songs before we left the studio and agreed we'd somehow find time during the touring year to get this record made.

Over the past 10 years with Brendan, our ability to get records done and to work on a variety of projects at the same time (Yes, we can multi-task!) has allowed us to get a steadier stream of our best music out to our fans. This is something I've always wanted to do. We found time to book sessions, get the band while it was hot off the road, write and record a new record, while giving our audience what I hope was some of the best E Street shows we've ever done. We're excited about you hearing this music and I just wanted to drop a line about how it all started. Have a great holiday and we'll see you in the New Year!

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN'S "THE WRESTLER" -- HEAR IT NOW!

"The Wrestler," a new film starring Mickey Rourke and directed by Darren Aronofsky, is now showing in New York and Los Angeles (and everywhere else soon afterwards). Click here to find out when The Wrestler opens at a theater near you!

Haven't seen the trailer yet? Watch it here.

The title song, heard in the trailer, is a brand new Bruce Springsteen track! It's available on iTunes starting today.

"I wrote Bruce a letter, because we've known each other over twenty years, and he knows what I used to be, or whatever. Where I went. What I'd been reduced to. I told him how I felt lucky now and didn't have to end up being this guy, being Randy (character from The Wrestler). A while later I got a call in the middle of the night: he said he'd written a little song, for nothing. It's fucking beautiful, right? I was honoured he took the time, because he's a busy cat. I mean, I'm so goddam proud of this magical movie and to have Bruce's input... ain't nobody in Hollywood with all their millions can just ring the man and he'll do a song, y'know?"
- Mickey Rourke

REMEMBERING TERRY MAGOVERN

Bruce Springsteen's friend and working partner of 23 years, Terry Magovern, died on July 30, 2007. Please read a page dedicated to his memory.

Read the brucespringsteen.net blog and news archive.